I have a small in home childcare and the one thing that I lack is calendar time. I have yet, after 6 years found a calendar routine that works for us that I can stick with every day. This is for children up to age 4. Ideas of how you incorporate it into your every day lessons?

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Calendar routine that works everyday? Can you elaborate a little more?

If I'm getting it right, you are looking for a routine that you can do everyday no matter what day of the year it is? If I got it right then what works for me is just doing a general routine with a lot of flexibility.

For example I have meal times and a nap/quiet time that does not change. These are at specific times but everything else follows in order bit not at specific times.

7am Breakfast
Drop off DD at school
Arrival-8:30 AMish Meet & Greet. Free play.
Circle time (discuss topic of the day, weather, calendar, letter, shape, sing etc)
9:00 AM Snack
Group activity
Discovery Time. Other kids free play while I do one-on-one (or by 2's) activities with them
Outside Play
11:30 AM lunch
Storytime
12:00 Nap
Free Play
Pick up DD from School
3:00 PM Snack
Music/Movement
Closing
Free Play

I have the same routines everyday but sometimes we take longer doing something and take less time doing others but the kids always know what we are doing next because our routine doesn't change.

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This is just me, but, I don't do calendar with kids UNTIL they are 4. Even then, we don't always do it everyday. The kids don;t seem to really be into it. We have too many other things to count ! lol

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I have ages 3-5 sit down for Calendar Time (while the 20-month-old reads books/sits with them/roams).
We have lunch, the children get up and read to themselves when they are done on the carpet, then they grab a River Stone to sit on and face the large bulletin board for our Afternoon Meeting. After our Afternoon Meeting we read a 3 books then prepare for nap (potty breaks, pulling out the cots, putting down the blankets, etc.).
Calendar Time is in our "Afternoon Meeting: Circle Time." We do counting all day long in other activities as well, but you simply can't replace calendar time with ease every day in other activities. It is what it is.

I point to the month with the pointer, ask, "What month is it?" They tell me, or I say it (depending on how early or late it is in the month). We then spell it.

We count the days of the month and add on the new day. Weekends are red numbers, weekdays are black numbers.

We put the new days in for the yesterday/today/tomorrow is ___ part.

I tell them, "5 + 2 equals 7. Where are your 7 fingers?" After holding up 7 fingers, we sing the first part of the days of the week song and upon getting to the actual days of the week I point to the calendar.

Then we move on to our Bible verse of the week, 10 Commandment of the week, weather, regular ABC song, and our color/shape of the week.

It takes ~10 minutes and familiarizes them with doing Calendar Time for Kinder.

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Ooooh I get it now . I do the calendar during circle time but because I have ages ranging from 1yr to 4 yrs (only 1 is age 4) I make it extremely simple.

I have a little blank calendar (no numbers on it) that I laminated that came with little cards with numbers 1-31 that represent the date. I stuck velcro onto the calendar where the dates go and on the back of the date cards. Every morning I say what day it is like "Today is Tuesday April 10" and the kids will try to find the number from the pile and we stick it onto the calendar where it goes. That's it. We may occasionally circle special days like holidays and birthdays to keep track of them but other than that I don't delve too much into it. Simple is better and the kids stay interested.

We also have a 5 day weekly forecast with the same idea where it's a little weekly calendar for five days but instead of cards with numbers on them there are cards with weather contitions (windy, sunny, raining, cloudy etc)and the kids will try to guess what the weather will be like the next DC day. When that day comes we check to see what the weather is and see if we were right or not.

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The kids I have are all preschool age or just about preschool age. They LOVE calendar time. We do not sit for calendar time, that's only for circle or story time. Calendar time is mainly just a transition for me. Quick and to the point so they don't lose interest. We review Month, Day of the Week, Date, Count the days, weather, sing 2 or 3 songs and we're done. I've also incorporated a 'helper' of the week rotation. Helps set table, put the day on the calendar, changes weather sign, helps set up crafts... gets a certificate at end of week with a small token (Roll of smarties or fun size m&m's pkg). They LOVE it!

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This exactly! To do calendar routine everyday is boring to me and boring to them. Once kids are 3.5 or 4, they are more interested in talking about the days of the week, etc and are better able to understand it. I will have all 4-5 yr olds in my pre-kinder program next year and I doubt we'll do calendar every day even with the older group.

ETA: I do have a Days of the Week song that we do most days (when I remember) that goes like this: "Today is Tuesday, Today is Tuesday, It's a preschool day! It's a preschool day! We're going to have lots of fun, We're going to have lots of fun. It's a preschool day. It's a preschool day."

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ditto

I use a blank calendar and add the date each day and review as does KDC. I also have "special days" marked ahead with some sort of symbol. Ex: flag for Memorial Day. We sing the days of the week song and when they have that down we'll get one for the months of the year. Maybe discuss a little about the season, coming holidays, etc. Nothing long or drawn out. 1-2 mins max. Often times we'll sing the song during transition instead of our traditional transition songs.

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Le dessin, la peinture c'est agréable mais ca reste bien souvent sur du papier, de la toile...
Peut être que la sculpture ou le modelage est plus "concret" pour débuter dans l'expression artistique... ?

Admin translation: Drawing, painting it's nice but it often remains on paper, canvas ...
Maybe the sculpture or modeling is more "concrete" to start in artistic expression ... ?

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Bienvenue sur le Forum Daycare.com! J'ai mis à jour votre statut. Vous pouvez poster librement maintenant.

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